Around Here editor/writer

Hazel Hardigree, the 96-year-old self-taught artist who had her own art gallery in southern Oconee County, died in her home Wednesday evening.

“She passed away peacefully. She was hoping it would be that way,” her daughter, June Dooley, said Friday.

Hardigree was featured in an article in the Banner-Herald on April 26 in the art gallery beside her home on Jerusalem Road, which she wanted to visit for the last time. Hardigree’s husband built the gallery to hang his wife’s numerous works.

Hardigree’s family hosted a social for the occasion so friends and family could visit the life-long Oconee County resident.

“She wanted the show and she was so happy that day, but it looked like after it was over she let go. Things began to go down,” Dooley said.

Hardigree will be buried next to her husband, Jerry, at 4 p.m. Sunday at Antioch Christian Church.

Hardigree painted rural scenes, some of the places in her community, but others, her daughter said, were “beautiful scenes.”

“I’ll treasure them,” said Dooley, who is now the caretaker of her mother’s work.